So, who was considered the biggest of the Transformers with the exception of Unicron

Hello everyone. New member, first post, all that jazz. Anyways, heres something I've been wondering. I've watched all the episodes from the G1 DVDs, and I've been trying to figure out if there is a universal understanding of what the most gigantic Transfomer (with the exception of Unicron) was, through all the inconsistencies in the animation.

Through Season 1 you had Devastator as the Ultimate weapon that the Decepticons had, who dwarfed the Autobots.

Then in Season 2, we got most of the rest of the combiners, and Omega Supreme who all seemed to be the same size, even though the Omega Supreme toy (as far as I can remember) was a bit taller than the combiners.

Then the confusion starts. In season 3 we got Trypticon, and Metroplex. The characters on the show were shown to be about twice the size of your average combiner team, in one scene and freaking HUGE in another. Afterall, they were both supposed to be transforming cities. For example, in the opening of Season 4, you see this TINY Bruticus flying at and attacking a gigantic Metroplex. So, the jury is still out on that one.

Then in the 3-episode Season 4, we got Scorpinok and Fortress Maximus. This is where a lot of the inconsistencies lie. Fort Max was obviously the most gigantic toy, but he is portrayed as about the size as your average combiner on the show, along with Scorpinok. I felt these two should've at least been as big as, if not bigger than Trypticon and Metroplex.

Then in the comics, both Fort Max and Scorpinok were just a little taller than the rest of the transformers, and not even as big as the combiners.

So, any thoughts on this? Is there a definitive guide out there somewhere?

Then it really depends. There is no definitive guide to the sizing, as it's all relative to the contriubting media.

Fort Max has been shown as a collusus, in Japanese magazines (Someone I'm sure can repost the picture or you can search on your own) with Fort Max, Metroplex, and some other TF's, with Metroplex not even half of Fort Max's height. Other material has been shown that show Metroplex's head as bigger than a gestalt, which would probably make him the largest. As you mentioned, through the various forms of media, we've gotten a lot of different scalings, from Fort being gestalt sized to being larger than entire TF cities, and the same problems occur with Metroplex.

Then there's also Brave Max. While Fort and Grand have human sized double headmasters, Brave had Plasma as a regular sized TF, which would (assuming no size shifting) make him far larger, as Brave (Plasma and the Comm Unit in robot mode) was larger than a gestalt, compared to the then regular TF sized modes that Cerebros/Grand was. This would make Brave Maximus enormous, even compared to Fort and Grand. It was pretty clear as was shown in the cartoon that he was immense.

Personally, I'd go Brave Maximus as the next largest.

Then after that, it's up for grabs between Fort/Grand and Metroplex, depending on what media portrayal you like.

It's all going to be a matter of personal interpretation. I personally choose to think of Metroplex, Trypticon, Scorponok, and the three Maximi Brothers as flippin' huge - city size, miles tall in robot mode. Everyone else is FAR smaller BUT within reasonable scale to one another.

This is going to sound bizarre, but I use what I think of as the "David & Goliath" principle. Goliath is said to have been six cubits tall, which is around 9-10 feet, depending on where you place the cubit (generally considered to be 18-24 inches). David being a young man, we'll put him at about 5.5 feet. So based on these assumptions, Goliath would have been roughly twice the height of David - a formidable foe, to say the least.

This seems to be the intention behind the combiners; like Goliath, an awe-inspiring adversary whose size intimidated and frightened. So I choose to put the combiners at about twice the size of a larger TF, like Prime or Grimlock. If we place Prime at 20' (which feels about right), then Menasor or Bruticus would be around 40'. Those numbers have always been a comfortable assumption for me. Ultimately, there will always be some where you just can't make it work right (Broadside, Astrotrain, Seaspray, among others).

In the Japanese Headmasters series, Fort Max is absolutely gigantic. Scorponok too. Both of them are huge, indeed from what I have gathered, Scorponok is slightly bigger than Fort Max in the Headmasters series. Only slightly, though, and that might vary depending on the episode. I'm only up to 13 (took a sneak peek at 15 because I wanted to see Scorponok).

In Masterforce, Black Zarak and Grand Maximus were scaled down quite considerably. Their height was around that of Overlord and God Ginrai (who were only slightly larger than Piranacon. The toys are about right, scale wise, for this series if you ignore Grand Max, actually).

Victory I'm not sure on. I think Liokaiser is going to be huge, since Liozak is so big to begin with. I guess he'll be scaled up in size to the same sort of size as Victory Saber. Hard to guage that show right now. Let me see some more episodes and I'll get back to you!

In the more recent shows, we've had some rather... odd developments involving shifting sizes. Super Starscream (Cybertron / Galaxy Force), Optimus & Galvatron (Energon), and some others too (those who have seen the Galaxy Force finale will know who I mean, those who haven't, sorry but I'm not going to spoil that one!). All those guys have been expanded to gigantic size for one reason or another. In the grand scale of things, they'd all fit in around the Primus scale mark.

As best I remember (since it's been a few years now) all the combined modes were of similar height. Road Ceaser, Liokaiser, Star Saber, and Dezzy were pretty close to each other, I think Landcross and Dinoking were a bit shorter. And Victory Saber of course would be a bit taller since he's wearing platforms.

The UK comic run made Metroplex by far the largest TF (stating outright in one FAQ that he was nine times larger than his nearest rival for the title, Devastator).This image from the cover of debut issue should give an idea of his size (see the Quintesson soldiers clinging to his fist as he emerges from Autobot City).

The UK comic run made Metroplex by far the largest TF (stating outright in one FAQ that he was nine times larger than his nearest rival for the title, Devastator).This image from the cover of debut issue should give an idea of his size (see the Quintesson soldiers clinging to his fist as he emerges from Autobot City).

Click to expand...

Yeah, although the US Marvel comics never had Metroplex, the sizes of Fort Max and Scorpy were definately not city sized but around Powermaster Optimus' size...

I think, in terms of size I would still with the Japanese Headmasters' series...its less confusing!